A leading US tax lawyer has compared FATCA to "exterminating ants with a nuclear bomb" as the controversial act's withholding stage is today launched across the globe. Joshua Ehrenfeld, attorney at law at US law firm Burr & Forman, said the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act is a "massive overreach," that might not have "the right effect" on offshore tax avoidance. "It will undeniably bring certain people in the light for hiding their money, but not everyone is out there to deliberately avoid tax," he said. "It could even push people into shadier directions, as there will always be people who cheat the system, regardless of the legal implications."

He added that a more effective way of handling avoidance would be to simplify the current US current tax system: "The book of US tax law is thousands of pages long and people don't know how to pay their taxes." "It needs to be simplified, and, instead of measures like FATCA, we would be better off making changes to how our citizens pay their tax."

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